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Air infiltration and ventilation heat loss can account for a substantial proportion of a buildlng's space heating demand. Therefore, in the planning of energy conservation measures, the influence of air exchange demands very careful consideration. Unfortunately, air infiltration is particularly difficult to measure. This is because not only is it dependent on building airtightness, and hence the quality of construction, but it is also significantly influenced by prevailing climatic conditions, surrounding terrain and the actions of occupants. Furthermore, the diverse and random distribution of leakage paths generally renders the direct measurement of air flow at each opening impossible. Consequently, the use of infiltration measurement techniques has largely been restricted to research investigations. In other circumstances air change rates are all too frequently based on guesswork or unreliable heat balance estimates. Recently, however, considerable progress has been made in the development of techniques to the point where their more general application has become possible. The objective of this report is to highlight these recent developments by presenting a brief review of measurement methods and e selective bibliography. In addition, this report contains details of manufacturers of instrumentation currently being used in air infiltration investigations.
The first section of the bibliography is devoted to review papers selected to provide a comprehensive background to the theory behind air infiltration measurement techniques. The remaining sections are devoted to tracer gas techniques, pressurization methods and miscellaneous approaches respectively. All references are taken from the Air Infiltration Centre's bibliographic database AIRBASE and were selected on the basis that they provide sufficient information to enable the techniques described to be readily adapted by potential users. Details of manufactuers are contained in three appendices; these cover tracer gas analysers, pressurization test equipment and surface pressure measuring instrumentation respectively.